What is the average consumption of killowatts by an american household?

on how stuff works they say its about 14,000 per day but that would amount to 1400$ per day in electricity(with 10 cents in kwh), we dont pay that much so I must have gotten something wrong here, even because afterwards they say that a house consuming 100 kwh per day would pay about 24 cents a day. Im really... show more on how stuff works they say its about 14,000 per day but that would amount to 1400$ per day in electricity(with 10 cents in kwh), we dont pay that much so I must have gotten something wrong here, even because afterwards they say that a house consuming 100 kwh per day would pay about 24 cents a day. Im really confused, thank you very much for your help. link:http://www.howstuffworks.com/question418.htm

Update: What I am trying to calculate is how much the average american household would consume in a day or a month

Update 2: would spend in electricity*

Update 3: in this link i found that iti s about 82$. However i would appreciate someone explaining to me how to get to that conclusion

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Answers

Best Answer: The average household in America consumes about 14,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy.

What the heck is a kilowatt hour?

Before we see how much electricity costs, we have to understand how it's measured. When you buy gas they charge you by the gallon. When you buy electricity they charge you by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). When you use a 1 kilowatt appliance for 1 hour, that's a kilowatt-hour. If you used it for two hours that would be 2 kWh.

Most things don't draw an even kilowatt, though. A typical central AC draws about 3.5 kilowatts, so in an hour it uses 3.5 kilowatt-hours. And a 100-watt light bulb uses 0.1 kW, since 1000 watts = 1 kilowatt.

Most utility companies charge a higher rate when you use more than a certain amount of energy, and they also charge more during summer months when electric use is higher. As an example, here are the residential electric rates for Austin, Texas.
* First 500 kilowatts
- 5.8¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh)
* Additional kilowatts (May-Oct.)
- 10¢ per kilowatt hour
* Additonal kilowatts (Nov.-Apr.)
-8.3¢ per kilowatt hour.

Say nobody goes over the limit, and they're charged at the 5.8¢ per kWh for one year, and the average is 14,000 kWh. Multiplying 0.058 by 14,000 would yield about $1000/year in electric costs, which is about right.

nobody pays $900 yearly for electricity. If they say they do, they are lying. The national average electric bill is $250 monthly for a homeowner, and, an average rent's power costs $100+ monthly. Add taxes and fees, generation charges, distribution fees, transmission charges, and all of the other fees such as Pura, DPUC charges, you are already at $300 a month. Go to Texas and ask an average homeowner what they pay, it's closer to $500 monthly. Electricity is ridiculous and it isn't going to be getting any better because power companies have the right to charge additional fees to make up for losses. They just call it something else before the DPUC, PURA & The DOE get into it with them, they remove the charges and call it something new. Its a normal thing that happens with all utilities and it happens every year, without anybody stopping them. The cost to generate your own power with today's propane or gas generators would be considerably less cost than paying the power companies their costs.

Solar panels are now around $275 per panel per 315 watts (that's after their efficiency losses, minus maybe 10% more losses for the inverters transformation from the batteries, charge controllers, etc. Anyway, 50 of those panels would net you 15,750 watts at full sunlight. That's a huge home running at it's maximum potential all day long at zero cost. The average home uses 1000 watts rms or even less if all bulbs used are led. The stove and heat is what costs us, dryers, a/c units, etc. Still, electric heat can cost you 3500 watts per hour and water heaters another 800 watts, then, well pumps and other lighting, fans, etc., maybe another 500 watts. All said and done, you use 5800, maybe 6000 watts maximum at any given time. That means you'll have an initial 14,000 watts to use - 6000 watts = 8000 watts left over to store for other times, cloudy days, etc, while all along, when it is light out, the newer panels generate some electricity, not a lot, but, probably 70% of your use is powered by cloudy days during the day and the left is stored to be used at night and like I said, for the non generated energy used on cloudy days. The only problem most homeowners face are the days that their panels are covered with snow, and, new raising motors combat the snow and ice that panels face. Panels usually are guaranteed to last 20 or 30 years, and, the biggest maintenance fee is charge controllers, batteries, and inverters. An entire system with enough *** to power your home in it's entirety costs you approximately 18k to do all yourself, and, it would pay for itself in 5 years if you already pay $300 monthly. If you have this installed and get government grants, you have to remain grid tied and you'll save some money monthly, however, your equipment gets beat up bad and you have no left over energy, costing you the headache of constantly trying to save electricity, shutting lamps off, and doing all you could so you don't have a monthly bill, but, the taxes and fees are still there no matter what when you are connected to the grid, every month like clockwork. It pays to be off the grid and have zero electric bill!

The average North American home uses about 1000 watts at any given time, or 1 kilowatt. Electricity is sold in units of kilowatt hours, which is 1000 watts for 1 hour. Therefore, the average home uses about 24 kilowatt hours of electricity in a 24 hour period. If your power rate is 10 cents per Kwh, then you are paying about 10 cents per hour or $2.40 per day - more if your home is electrically heated and you live in Fairbanks or Winnipeg in January.

Another interesting fact is that 1 gallon of gasoline yields about 33.5 kilowatts hours. The EPA uses 33.7 kilowatts per gallon to estimate equivalent miles per gallon (mpg) rating for electric cars. the conversion is called MPGe, or miles per gallon equivalent.

at 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that's $3.37, which amazingly is the exact average price of gasoline in the us today. However, when you guys responded, the price of gas was at a decade low of $1.61. However, that doesn't mean you would have been better off using a gas generator, because combustion engines are about 30% efficient (70% lost to heat), plus the back end cost to the environment.

Interestingly, this conversion tells us that the average house uses the equivalent of about only about 0.7 gallons of gasoline to run their house. Surprisingly, the average person drives 37 miles per day, and the average car mpg in 2008 was 25 mpg, so that's about 1.5 gallons per person just on driving. This means a per household fuel usage of gas is likely double that, 3 gallons.

So on average we use about 4 times as much energy driving, than we use in our home. Therefore, good insulation is not the number one thing you can do to save energy in your home. the number one thing you can do is buy a home close to work, bet a job near your home, and/or bike, car pool or use public transportation.

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